By Design: Kevin Adams Lights SpongeBob SquarePants On Broadway

By Ellen Lampert-GreauxMay 30, 2018 06:00am

"This is by far the largest amount of electrics I have used in a Broadway show. The rig is large and there is a long list of set electrics that are spread across the entire Palace Theatre," says Adams. 

"For the walk-in, we painted the entire Palace Theatre with a really pretty water effect from a device that is made by Rosco," the LD adds. "We have 16 of them, and they cover every wall and ceiling surface there."

"I’ve never worked on a Broadway show that had this scale of electrics and that occupies such a large amount of space in the theatre," admits Adams.

"We literally had no more room in the theatre to hang small specials," Adams notes. "Between sound, scenery, projection, bubble and confetti devices, and lighting, every inch of available space in the palace is used."

"We have 56 LED movers on all of the portals, and they do a lot of work of lighting scenes and pointing back into the theatre as blinders," Adams explains. "They are on almost the entire show in both of those capacities."

For research, the SpongeBob TV show was a reference for Adams. "I had watched the show here and there over the years mostly because it was created by a fellow California Institute of the Arts grad," he says. "The show always seemed to me very Cal Arts. And when Tina Landau called about this project, I did dig back into the show."

In terms of artistic intent, "the show uses all kinds of snappy storytelling devices, and those are useful for a musical that contains many different story lines and a wide variety of song styles," Adams points out.

"There is a wide range of musical genres in the show, and that’s partly what attracted me to the project," notes Adams. "My frequent collaborator, Tom Kitt (musical supervisor and orchestrations), did a great job of pulling them into the same show and still leaving the unique spirit of each song intact."

"The show was rented from PRG, and they did a stellar job helping us make a useful package that we could afford," concludes Adams.